Mbappe scores four goals

Paris

PSG took its goal tally to 32 as it moved eight points clear at the top after a bruising match where both teams finished the first half with 10 men. Lyonnais, which had to substitute two players before half-time because of injury, more than held their own for the first hour and hit the post with the score at 0-1.

Brazilian Neymar converted a penalty to give PSG a ninth-minute lead but the game took a dramatic turn when the host had Presnel Kimpembe sent off in the 32nd minute for a dangerous studs-up tackle on Tanguy Ndombele. The referee initially gave a yellow card but changed it to red after a VAR review.

The numbers were evened up in first-half stoppage time after Lucas Tousart was given a second yellow card for tripping Mbappe and was sent off for the second game in a row. Lyonnais nearly snatched an equaliser in extraordinary circumstances after half-time when PSG defender Thiago Silva fired a clearance straight at Maxwell Cornet and the ball came off him and struck the foot of the post.

Mbappe, who until then had been anonymous, also hit the post from the next move and shortly afterwards the floodgates opened. The 19-year-old extended PSG’s lead in the 61st minute with a shot which went in off both posts and then tapped in a short pass from Marquinhos after Lyonnais failed to clear the ball.

He completed his hat-trick in the 69th minute after Neymar sent him clear of the defence and he ran on to finish emphatically. Five minutes later, he drilled home the ball after it ricocheted around the Lyonnais penalty area.

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